


The Size of Freedom

by dizmo



Category: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Genre: Conversations, Friendship, Gen, POV First Person, Post-Canon, Yuletide 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28147692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizmo/pseuds/dizmo
Summary: There's an adjustment to be made, but it's not a bad one.
Relationships: Andy Dufresne & Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	The Size of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galaxysoup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxysoup/gifts).



Zihuatanejo is quiet.

Not _silent_. Hell, some nights in Shawshank were more silent than any place by the ocean could ever be. But the kind of quiet of this place has nothing to do with the sound. It's what's in your head and what you bring to it. In Shawshank, your thoughts are loud.

Here? Here, my thoughts are as quiet as they've ever been. It's like Andy said about this place the very first time he told me about it. The Pacific has no memory. No judgment. Doesn't know an old crook from a rock on the sand. Soothes those thoughts like a balm. Like freedom.

I'm just standing on the shoreline letting the water lap onto my feet when Andy walks out to me, a smile on his face and the breeze off the water blowing his hair. I'm just starting to get used to the feeling of freedom. It sits on Andy's shoulders like it never left him. Like he was just in those four walls for twenty years to give the rest of us a glimpse of it.

If that's what it is, I'm glad he did it, even if it's probably a little selfish of me.

I look over at Andy and I wave, not ready to break the quiet just yet.

His smile just grows and he steps up next to me, feet in the sand next to mine, facing out toward the water. Either he wanted to keep the quiet just a little longer too or he just knew that I did. Either way, I'm grateful.

We stand there for a while, watching the Pacific in our comfortable quiet before I finally break it. "You were right about this place."

Andy chuckles. "You've been here a week and you've told me that at least twice a day. Haven't told me which part yet, but I figure you'll get there eventually."

Let nobody ever say that Andy Dufresne is an impatient man.

"You didn't say much," I tell him, finally. "But all of it was right. It's a warm place with no memory. It washes the past away. Or at least it softens the edges."

"It's what I needed," he answers. "What you needed, too."

"If I could bottle this up and send it back to every man in Shawshank, I would. Even the fresh air breathes different here." If I could send it back in time and give it to Brooks, I would even more.

"Well, you _are_ a man who knows how to get things," Andy says wryly.

"In Shawshank, I was a man who knew how to get things. Out here, though, I'm just a man." I smile, just a little. "I could get used to being just a man, I think."

Andy takes a few steps back before sitting on the sand, resting his elbows loosely on his knees. I look back at him. He waves one hand towards the great expanse of the water. "You got me all this, if you think about it."

"I got you a tiny hammer and some posters. Everything else was you. Hell, if I get you some eggs and flour, you can't say I got you a cake."

He just laughs. "Okay. You got me the ingredients for Mexico, then."

"A couple of them, sure. But you were the one with the recipe. Thanks for sharing it, even if I skipped parts of it."

Andy shot me that little crooked smile that always meant there was some mischief going on in that head of his."I don't think I'd recommend the 'crawling through shit' step if you can avoid it, really."

I step back myself and sit next to him, giving him a little smile of my own, even if mischief isn't exactly my own stock in trade. "Well, it's a hell of a lot quicker than parole."

"Congratulations on that again, by the way."

A sound comes out of me that's not quite a laugh, but I think it wants to be. "I still don't exactly understand how I finally got parole by telling them that I didn't give a shit about getting parole."

Andy does laugh, full and strong. It fits in here in a way it never did in Shawshank, the creature of freedom in his natural habitat. The sound is almost as warm as the sand I'm sitting on.

So I continue. "I'm glad I made it here. Little surprised I made it before you got your little business empire up and running. I was half expecting your dreams to be sitting here all wrapped up in a nice little package."

He laughs again. "I'll point out that I _do_ have the boat. But Red, I never wanted to rush this thing. If you're too focused on _attaining_ your goal, you miss the journey _of_ attaining them. And that's half the fun. Besides, I had to wait for my partner, didn't I?"

Like I said, let nobody ever say that Andy Dufresne is an impatient man. 

I lean back on my elbows, the sand against my skin gritty, but still somehow not any bother. "There is something about this place that doesn't like rushing, isn't there."

"I don't know if it's this place specifically, or maybe just the freedom. When you can do what you want, when you want it, things find their own pace."

"And _I_ don't know about _that_ one," I tell him. "There's plenty of people that have all the freedom in the world and go about living like they're racing to the finish line."

"I'm not disputing that. I used to be one of them. But I don't think I had all the freedom in the world then." He pauses. "No, actually, I did. I just didn't make use of it. People don't realize how much they _don't_ do with the time they have until they can't anymore. And then, at least for me, getting that time back again is... Well, it's a revelation."

I chuckle. "Mr. Andy Dufresne, former banker, escaped convict, and philosopher."

"If you want to say so, sure. I think enough time in prison turns _everyone_ into a bit of a philosopher."

"And you saying _that_ sure as hell doesn't change my opinion any."

"See? Must be your philosophy."

And I sit next to my friend beside the ocean, which is even more blue than I could possibly have dreamed, and I laugh.

Freedom may not quite fit my shoulders yet. It's a little too big. But I think I might have a chance to grow into it.

After all, I've got a damn good example to learn from.


End file.
